8 months and counting...

We can hardly believe it's been 8 months since the first day we met you.  Since then, we've had a lot of learning and growing for all of us.  I feel like you are doing something new every day.  Here are my favorite highlights of this month:

- You LOVE saying da-da and ma-am and can associate those words with your mom and dad now!

-You like to mimic us.  It's fun because there are so many fun things to teach you! 

-  We are trying to get you to wave.  I know you are attempting it quite often but everything kind of looks like you are shaking your arm and usually winds up with you clapping. But you have managed it several times.

-  You still love the bath.  You love your cups and whale and you love using them for splashing which is your favorite thing! The latter usually ends bath time prematurely.

-  Mom brushes your two little teeth at night and you LOVE it.  We think your top chompers are starting to make their debut.

- You adore small children.  Any time you see a small child, you wig out with hopping and squeals until they give you attention and then you try to grab them...

- You are actually an amazing sleeper and don't hardly ever wake up which his a dream come true! We bought a porta crib so you weren't sleeping in our room anymore and that 30 bucks was the best investment!

- As far as crawling goes, you are kind of a menace now! You can crawl and climb on things and our tiny apartment isn't ready for that! It is fun to watch you explore though! 

-  The things that make you happiest are the park, soccer balls, walks, daddy or mommy coming home and FOOD!

-  You love mirrors and give yourself a lot of slobbery kisses any time you get a glimpse of your reflection.

-  Speaking of kisses, they are hard to come by with you (unless you are kissing your own reflection).  We ask you for kisses and we are hardly ever successful, but if by chance we get one, your smooches tend to be especially juicy.  They are best when given on the cheek :)

-  If we are running errands or just out and about, people love to comment on how happy/chill you are, and that you look just like a doll.

-  You are not a performer.  You have to warm up to people before you start busting out any tricks.  Maybe you are a bit shy at heart? We'll see, I guess.

-  The other big thing is that you got your helmet this month! You are as cute as ever and it doesn't even bother you now!

You are such a happy and good-natured baby. We thank Heavenly Father every day for sending you to our home!

Check out our NEW CAR!

We finally broke down and bought a car. We looked for months and months for a nice used Honda CRV and one Saturday we were really discouraged and went to the Orem Honda dealership AGAIN to just see if they could find anymore used Honda CRVs and a few hours later we drove off the lot with our 2014 pearl white Honda CRV. We got an amazing deal especially with our tax return money and my car trade-in! It was a leap into unknown water but we felt good about our decision and Heavenly Father let us feel peace about the decision. 

It still feels weird driving a new car but I'm sure that will go away. My favorite features are the Bluetooth and Eco function! But really I just love everything! I feel almost in a honeymoon stage with this car! 

Check it out! 

It is Emerie approved and she sort of christened our new car with the first honks of the new horn!

She's Rockin' the Helmet

Emerie has a flat head and she can probably blame that on both her parents. Nathan's family genetically has flat heads and I probably wasn't as vigilant on tummy time. But such is life and so she gets to wear a pretty pink helmet! 

She was bothered at first but now she could care less and sleeps like a pro! I was probably more worried about the judgements people would make. But we decided we were going to own the helmet and rock it for 2 months! 

Most people are pretty sweet and nice about it or just stare for a few minutes but it doesn't bother me like I thought it would. There was the one Walmart trip from hell. Twice I had two different little kids ask their moms "why does that baby have a helmet" or "what did that mom do to that baby's head?" I mostly laugh at their inquiries because they're kids but one mom actually responded to her child "sometimes mommy's don't know what they are doing and don't take care of their babies". I'm pretty sure she thought I was out of earshot but I heard it and made note to try and be less judgmental! 

Although, my motherhood experience has kept teaching me that like I'm sure it does for many moms. For example, I never had morning sickness, I had some bad postpartum depression (or what I deemed as bad), I didn't breastfeed, my baby slept through the night at 6 weeks and now my baby has a helmet! I'm pretty much the mom every woman hates or the mom who gets a lot of other Mom's awkward questions (or they approach with awkwardness). I definitely get the "why don't I breastfeed?" question quite a bit.  I don't care so much anymore and welcome questions because I learned there's more than one way to be a good mom! 

Anyway, here are some pictures of my beautiful baby in her bubblegum pink helmet!